A disappointing winter transfer window?

By Niccolo Conte | 1st February 2010

A disappointing winter transfer window? | read this item

With only a couple hours left until the January transfer window closes, it feels like a severe disappointment all around. Before the window opened, we couldn’t wait to see who would go where, whether it be Real Madrid’s galactico rumors, or African Cup of Nations replacements. But in the end, nothing has really happened, leaving us with some signings that in the end, don’t excite anyone.

If we look at the few signings made, we see only a couple that catch the average football fan’s eye. Everyone expected massive signings from Real Madrid and Manchester City, but in the end we got van Nistelrooy leaving for Hamburg, and Vieira going to City – two signings which can only be described as disappointing. The Dutchman left Madrid after some speculation between Spurs and West Ham, and instead chose Hamburg. While the Frenchman wasn’t being played at Inter Milan, and it doesn’t seem like he’ll be used at Manchester City either thanks to the abundance of midfielders they have (Petrov, Barry, Ireland, De Jong, Kompany, etc.). And although Liverpool signed Maxi Rodriguez from Atletico Madrid, it doesn’t seem like there are any other big signings going the Premiership’s way.

In Spain it was a mixed window, with a quiet Barcelona not needing anyone like Fabregas or Mascherano thanks to their deep talent pool, and a Real Madrid that was only interested in Sergio Canales. Indeed, it was the smaller clubs that operated most in the window. Sinama Pongolle left Atletico Madrid to go to Sporting, and Miku left Valencia for Getafe. A couple other small scale transfers littered Spain’s football news, but nothing has lit up the Spanish transfer market.

It is probably in Italy that the transfer market has kicked off the best, with AC Milan signing the promising young Ghanaian striker Adiyiah who lit up the U20 World Cup, and Inter signing Pandev for free, it seems that it’s business as usual in Italy. Juventus offloaded Molinaro to Stuttgart and Tiago to Atletico Madrid, so they could finally nab the young talent Andrea Candreva from Livorno. It looks like the Bianconeri are rebuilding for the future. Parma landed the legendary striker Hernan Crespo, and Lazio signed Eguren (on loan) and Hitzlsperger, it was like Italy never stops reinforcing itself. And not only is it full of official deals being struck up, but with the rumors of Cassano to Fiorentina and Ledesma to Inter, the papers don’t stop printing Serie A news.

But overall we saw a drop in activity – is it that the global economic recession has finally hit football? It seems like it, as even Manchester City isn’t buying anyone, and they were supposed to spend their way into the Champions League. Not only do we have to wonder whether the window has suffered because of the recession, but we need to ask ourselves, is it time to close the mid-season window? Is it time to get rid of transfer windows completely? It seems like if football doesn’t start changing soon, the economic side of the beautiful game could really suffer in the upcoming seasons.

Who had the signing of the month in your eyes? Tell us below!